Manyu Hikencho

In an alternate feudal Japan, breasts mean everything. Literally.

In this strange time, the social status of a woman is entirely dependent on the size of her mammaries. The more favorably endowed tend to live the life of aristocracy and wealth. The less-than-ample are treated like trash. Of course, a system such as this would lead to a very erratic society, with wealth shifting hands haphazardly every generation. That's where the Manyu Clan comes in.

The Shogunate employ the Manyu Clan, a group of samurai who know the endless intricacies and knowledge of the human breast, to keep the rich and poor in their place. Using knowledge and techniques passed down through the generations, the Manyu Clan nurtures the future aristocracy to reach their buxom potential. They also dispatch of the poor who develop massive, magnificent mounds through the use of their secret slashing technique, which rips the "soul" of the breast out of the target's body. Without harming their supple body, of course.

Chifusa, the future successor of the Manyu Clan, becomes disillusioned of the crazy society in which she lives, and flees with the sacred scroll of the clan, which explains all of their breast-growing secrets, as well as the technique to destroy the breast. Chifusa gained her status as successor not because she was the eldest of the aristocracy (although being one of the previous successor's children helps a bit), but because of a technique she and she alone possesses: the ability to not destroy, but absorb breasts. While remarkable, this is mostly a hindrance to Chifusa. Despite this, she goes on a Robin Hood-esque quest to right the wrongs of society and to punish the unjust who flaunt their wealth.

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Tropes used in Manyu Hikencho include:

• Above Good and Evil: Considering Good = Boobs in this world, it's not hard to see why Chifusa thinks this way. By conventional standards, though, she really isn't.
• Author Appeal: Not the author of the manga, but the director of the anime adaption, Hiraku Kaneko. He has a blatant love for oversized breasts. A lot of elements from the manga are exaggerated in the anime. This is par for the course when it comes to his the other adaptations he has worked on, either as a director or an animator (Witchblade, Queen's Blade, etc).
  • The anime adaption has added nipple sucking in many episodes, a holdover from Seikon no Qwaser...where there was actually a reason for it.
• A-Cup Angst: Kaede, who used to be quite well endowed until her master, Chifusa, defected. The fact that Chifusa has become more than a little bustier does not help. The same applies to Kagefusa, but she gets better...mostly.
  • And there's Ouka
• Art Evolution: Quite noticeable. By volume three the art has become much more streamlined.
• Beach Episode: Featuring a very perverted octopus. The episode also proves that large breasts aren't very hydrodynamic.
• Big Breasts, Big Deal: This is played with to an extraordinary degree. Many well endowed characters make up more than one type at once. Chifusa has been each type at least once and has been three or more of them at the same time in some situations! This is partially because people's sizes tend to change in this series.
  • Oiso in episode 4 is particularly notable for being, along with Chifusa, one of the very few Type 2's in the series. Formerly her village's best diver, she laments how while growing big breasts may be seen as status symbols in this setting, they get in the way of doing what she loves. Thus, when Chifusa ends up having to use the breast-absorbing technique on her, Oiso is grateful.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Usually averted hard, but played straight sometimes, especially with Chifusa.
• BFS: Ouka wields a katana almost as big as her, and she's fast with it too.
• Blade on a Stick: Tsuyuha wields a naginata.
• Blood From the Mouth: Momoha
• Bloodless Carnage: Hitomune's rampage at his traitorous vassal and his men, many were slashed and yet not single drop of blood was spilled.
• Break the Haughty: Kagefusa, in the first chapter or episode, as the first victim of Chifusa's ability to absorb breasts; she goes from extremely well endowed to flat or nearly so in seconds, and Chifusa's breasts jump in size to even bigger than Kagefusa had, just to rub salt in the wound.
• Breast Expansion: And how! It's a pretty big part of the series as a whole.
• Buxom Is Better: The opening openly states that women with small breasts aren't even considered human.
• Cain and Abel: Chifusa and Kagefusa. This mainly due to Kagefusa jealously over Chifusa being chosen to become successor to the clan despite Kagefusa having bigger breasts.
• Chivalrous Pervert: Pretty much any sympathetic male character, but especially Lord Mie Hatamune.
• Dangerously-Short Skirt: Quite a few of the girls, actually.
• Deconstruction: The whole show takes the idea that a woman's breast size equals status and authority and shows in unequivocal terms that it's a terrible way to judge a woman's worth as opposed to their actual talents and ability to contribute to their society.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Chifusa, and it's not just Kaede who goes after her.
• Fan Service: Considering the type of magazine it is published in, as well as the very concept of the work itself, this shouldn't come as a shock. However, as the series has progressed, fanservice has become less and less frequent.
  • The anime is exactly the opposite. It took the fanservicey nature of the first volume and cranked it Up to Eleven.
• Fake Boobs: Kagefusa dons an inflating bra, after Chifusa steals her breasts.
• Fan Service with a Smile: More than once Chifusa and Kaede have had to get part time jobs in maid outfits to keep their funds up.
• Gag Boobs: It's an action/comedy about breasts. You should have seen this coming.
  • There's one particularly notable example; after devastating a very large group of buxom ninja, Chifusa finds herself with breasts so big she can't even stand due to their sheer weight. Cue a Rocky-esque montage of her training at a nearby temple to learn how to reduce her size while wearing what is essentially the biggest sports-bra ever.
• Gainaxing: Invoked when Chifusa agree to represent a village in a festival where each side nominates their bustiest woman to stand on portable platforms and has attendants shake the platforms under them to get the breasts to bounce.
  • Weaponized in the second episode where an assassin puts Chifusa in a trance with a technique that involves drugs and spinning her breasts. However, the downside is that the technique causes her breasts to sag.
• Gratuitous English: Kaede in episode 3.

Kaede: "Come back, my oppai!."

• Hey, It's That Voice!: Kaede is played by Aki Toyosaki, and Ouka is played by no other than Mamiko Noto.
  • Chifusa is voiced by Minako Kotobuki.
  • Oume from episode 1 is voiced by Yoko Hikasa
• Hidden Buxom
• Hit Me Dammit: When Chifusa discovers that Kagefusa has to use fake breasts because she couldn't deal with the lost of her real breasts, which Chifusa stole, Chifusa proposes that Kagefusa shrink her breasts as payment.
• I Have Boobs - You Must Obey!: Played with. Boobs are the source of social standing in this world, after all, so it's not all that crazy when a chick can just pull them out and turn a potential fight into a frenzy of cheering and general happiness.
• In the Blood: Chifusa's bloodline happens to be that of the enemy of the Manyu clan. The leader decides to make her the heiress due to her incredible potential. It didn't work out.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Despite being born and raised in a society where breasts mean everything, being raised as the heir of the clan that basically controls the country, and being taught that women without breasts are trash, Chifusa still sees the good qualities in the flat and the bad qualities in the busty. She doesn't see either side as necessarily better or worse, the system just isn't fair. Although, it could be that her rebel blood is what makes her fight.
• Interrupted Intimacy: In episode 5 Yasuke's kids walk in on him and their soon to be stepmother just as the couple was about to get passionate with each other. Fortunately, they were too young to understand what was going on.
• Knight of Cerebus: Ouka, who uses her blade to actually kill someone instead of just shrink their breasts.
• Lens Flare Censor: The anime's censored broadcast goes crazy with this. Shots of characters holding large flabs of "light", entire bodies glowing, and lasers covering the majority of the screen are not uncommon. Inevitable Dragon Ball jokes followed.
  • SOLAR FLARE!
• Lovable Sex Maniac: Kaede has an obsession with Chifusa. And large breasts. And just hot chicks in general. Even more so in the anime, where she attempts molest Chifusa at least four times an episode, instead of just once every other chapter.
  • Lord Mie as well, especially when he's masquerading as a commoner.
• Naughty Tentacles: The perverted octopus in the beach episode, who likes to put his victims in some very comprising positions. Chifusa lampshades the Fetish Fuel elements of this trope when she point out that there some weird people who find this appealing.
• Marshmallow Hell: More like marshmallow heaven in most cases.
  • In episode 5 one of the things Yasuke's kids miss about their mother, is how she'd smother them with her breasts.
• Meaningful Name/Punny Name: Much of the cast has names with Mune on them, yet another word for breasts, although the kanji for them actually has other readings, so it won't blatant mean just breasts.
  • Muneyuki, Munenori, Hatomune and other minor characters.
  • Chifusa's name is one dakuten (voiced accent mark) away from chibusa ("udders").
  • Manyu literally means Breast/Tit Spirit and that's a family clan name of a feared group of ninjas, the title of the series itself means Breast/Tit Spirit Scroll.
• Non-Indicative First Episode: Episode one features betrayal and excessive fanservice. The next few episodes are mostly goofy misadventures with lighter fanservice. Then the Knight of Cerebus appears.
• Only Sane Woman: Chifusa sees the distinction of judging a woman's place in society by her cleavage level to be ridiculous, and her goal is spread this fact to everyone else.
• Phrase Catcher: "They're so lesbian" (usually said in deadpan), directed at Chifusa and whichever girl happens to be groping her at the moment (usually Kaede).
• Reluctant Fanservice Girl: Chifusa. She's a broke runaway samurai in a world that favors huge breasts. She's doesn't have any choice but to use her huge breasts to make money.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Lord Mie is actually rather terrifying when he finds out that someone's harmed Chifusa('s breast).
• Samurai: Although they are much more like Ninja.
• Scarf of Asskicking: Only worn in the early chapters of the manga, but featured heavily in advertising and the anime.
• Scars Are Forever: In episode 4, an old guy is asked about his old scar, prompting a flashback of how he got it from a girl he was trying to grope.
• Serious Business: Breasts equal everything. EVERYTHING.
• Suppressed Mammaries: Chifusa starts as a particularly good example...at least until her Sarashi bursts open.
• Tall, Dark and Bishoujo: At first glance, this is Chifusa. It becomes apparent very quickly that she's a goofy, slightly girly Tomboy Princess who is trying as hard as she can to be aloof.
• Title Drop: The Scroll Chifusa carries with her, the Manyu Clan's treasure: Manyu Scroll --> Manyu Hikenchou.
• Too Hot for TV: As expected, the initial version has been called a "Broadcast Wreck" due to excessive use of Lens Flare Censor that renders it mostly unwatchable. The AT-X broadcasts, meanwhile, are partially uncensored, and the fully uncensored Directors Cut is available as a streamed webcast. DVD and Blu-Ray versions are (as usual) uncut.
• Victoria's Secret Compartment: Where Chifusa keeps the scroll.
• White-Haired Pretty Girl: Kagefusa
• Widget Series: However you may take the shockingly-bizzare concept, you have to praise it for being daring and original.
• Work Off the Debt: Chifusa and Kaede seem rather used to having to work at the places they rest and eat. In the beginning of episode 4, when they realize they don't have enough money to pay for the food they just eat they immediately put on their waitress uniforms from a previous episode.
• You Have Failed Me...: After Kagefusa's squad fails to capture Chifusa, she punishes them by shrinking all of their breasts. Considering how important breasts are in this show it's a hefty loss.
• Zettai Ryouiki: Chifusa and Kagefusa.